1/2/8 Research Forum – Spot on Governance

1/2/8 Research Forum
Spot on Governance

Since 2017, with the Research Forum 1/2/8, PACT has been bringing together researchers, artists, scientists and activists at the titular historical mining complex 1/2/8. In a lively, transdisciplinary exchange, the focus is on exploring new models for connecting knowledge and action.

Under the title ›Spot on Governance‹, 1/2/8 focuses in 2023 on examining the political and social conditions that shape our coexistence. Where do visible and invisible rules lead to an unequal distribution of power? Who has access to which resources? Who owns information, infrastructures, and data?

Together, the participants of 1/2/8 engage in an intense work and research phase to analyze the current state of affairs and cultivate new visions. Guided by diverse forms of representation, self-organization, and collaboration, they invite others to rethink the future. Transforming the think tank into an inclusive space for discussion, 1/2/8 is framed by a public program featuring lectures, workshops, and artistic interventions.

A project within the framework of The Alliance of International Production Houses, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Spot on Governance in pictures

Eine Gruppe von Menschen steht vor einer Wand mit Tigerschatten — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Menschen sitzen sich in zwei Reihen gegenüber — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Vortrag Azadeh Akbari — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Multispecies Dinner — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Muktispecies Dinner — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Sutdio visit WerkStadt — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Juha Leppänen Lecture — Photo: Anton Vichrov

Residencies

WochenKlausur
How does the political situation change if elections could be conducted based on new (equally democratic) rules? It's not solely our choices that affect the distribution of power, but also the manner in which we're allowed to vote: when one can vote for and/or against a party, different election results are achieved. WeeksKlausur conducts fictional elections as a pilot study, thereby initiating a fundamental discussion on electoral systems.

Portrait Wochenklausur

kainkollektiv: Elena Novakovits, Anna Majewska, Joulia Strauss, Immanuel Bartz, Mirjam Schmuck, Fabian Lettow, Hannah Busch, Karla Max Aschenbrenner
Through the research project ›COMMUNITIES OF CARE‹, the kainkollektiv aims to initiate an artistic process involving experts and participants that envisions major cities as spaces for feminist care practices. Their goal is to create avenues within contemporary theater to initiate a negotiation process about the relationship between art, theory, activism, and caregiving practices, while interconnecting feminist forms of knowledge practices.

Group portrait

Organismendemokratie & Feral Malmö: Paz Ponce, Georg Reinhardt, Inna Zrajaeva, John Kazior, Louise Peermin, Marianna Sonneck, Matthias Lent
Organisms Democracy is a new urban praxis, an experimental approach which is based on the idea that 'nature' does not exist as a singular entity but rather comprises a myriad of species. Through a human-based political representation system, the praxis makes individual interests of different species audible and strives to find democratic solutions for conflicts. It aims to collectively create declarations and constitutions to establish a basis for the development of a democratic multi-species society.

Group portrait

Alfonse Chiu, Petra Matić, Gusti Hendra Pratama, Arijit Bhattacharyya
›We Are The Nearby Faraway: Rethinking Regionalism, Reworking Solidarity‹ aims to examine the notion of regionality from the perspective of geoculture to dissect the choreography of political affinities and loyalities within contemporary geopolitics, as well as broader questions of movements, migrations, and capital flow. This project re-imagines the definitions of social regulations as a sophisticated form of soft technology across politics, society, and culture.

Group portrait

Connor Cook, Christina Lu, Dalena Tran
Connor Cook, Christina Lu and Dalena Tran developed the ›Whole Earth Codec‹, a speculative multi-modal AI foundation model trained on non-human ecological data. The Codec is trained to detect patterns in the biosphere and designed to stimulate conversations around the political, philosophical, and ecological implications of such a proposal. Who »owns« the data produced by a rainforest?

Group portrait

POST DISASTER: Gabriele Leo, Margherita Kay Budillon
›POST DISASTER‹ is an interdisciplinary collective based in Taranto (Southern Italy), a city manifesto of the contemporary ecological crisis. Their practice intersects spatial, performative and editorial actions. Their research uses the metaphor of disaster as a territorial lens for understanding global dynamics and tensions. Their main project ROOFTOPS is a long-term platform that unfolds through a series of temporary occupations, reinterpreting existing places into spaces of learning, encounter and discussion where the local community and an international creative scene converge: it is a process of space-making that challenges the common understanding of urban spaces.

group portrait